LUCKLESS FRIAR'S BALSAM 



I MUST now go back to the year 1886 in order 

 to pick up some items left behind when we were 

 carried along by the story of Ormonde. Lord 

 Alington's Candlemas won some races that 

 season. He was a good-looking bay horse by 

 Hermit out of Fusee. We did not run him as a 

 two-year-old, and it was in the Epsom Grand 

 Prize that he made his first public appearance. 

 We tried him pretty highly, and odds of 6 to 5 

 were laid on his beating ten opponents. He won 

 by a neck from Lord Bradford*s Sir Hamo, with 

 St. Mirin a moderate third. St. Mirin reversed 

 this form in the Ascot Derby ; but Candlemas 

 came into prominence again when he finished 

 second to Bendigo in the first contest for the 

 Eclipse Stakes at Sandown Park. This was the 

 first of the ;^ 10,000 races. During the next few 

 years other similar events were instituted, but 

 the Eclipse is the only one that has really been 

 successful. In the Liverpool Autumn Cup that 

 year Candlemas was placed third to Melton and 

 Kilcreene; he won a couple of races as a four- 



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